Shifting conferences is not uncommon for most schools. It all started from the Pac-12 then Mountain West, and now the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) seems to be the next one that will lose a member school. Commissioner Brian Thornton and the rest saw Texas Rio Grande Valley struggle in the past season. There were already rumors that the Vaqueros were set to join the Southland Conference after this season. As of the moment, those rumors seem to be slowly coming to life.
Texas Rio Grande Valley has officially declared its intent to leave the WAC, per Pete Thamel of ESPN. The Vaqueros unveiled this big move in their latest statement.
“As you know this is a dynamic time in college athletics with exciting opportunities for our university. We are always evaluating ways we can enhance the competitive experience for our student-athletes and improve their overall well-being,” the Texas Rio Grande Valley athletics department wrote.
All while nothing is certain, the Vaqueros might be giving Commissioner Brian Thornton and the rest of the WAC some time for their departure. They are scheduled to leave for the Southland Conference in the coming 2024-25 season which means a couple of things. The first is that they will need to undergo a lot of processes before this becomes official. One can think it would look like Stanford and Cal leaving the Moutain West conference.
The other is that Texas Rio Grande Valley will have to pay Brian Thornton's WAC a whopping $2 million to exit. This fee will be necessary to help the conference move on without the Vaqueros.
This move makes a lot of sense for the team which struggled to compete. With the WAC, the Vaqueros had to travel and compete against teams like Utah Vally, Seattle University, and Grand Canyon. All of those schools posed issues in terms of travel which may trickle to fatigue and issues of execution within games. This huge factor led their men's basketball squad to only win six games out of their 31 matchups. Moreover, it also prompted the firing of Coach Matt Figger.
Advantages for Texas Rio Valley Grande moving out of the WAC
The athletics program hopes to no longer have a repeat of what happened this season. In their move to join the Southland Conference, issues of proximity will be less. Teams like Texas A&M Commerce, Lamar, and A&M Corpus Christi are far closer which eliminates some of their concerns in travel and performance.
This big decision also opens the Vaqueros to a realm of better opportunities. One of them is a better-performing basketball program due to the aforementioned barriers being broken in terms of travel. Texas Rio Grande Valley has never reached March Madness or the NCAA Tournament. They can get better in competitions due to closer opponents and also getting ample amounts of rest in between games. It will take a long period of time but it will certainly make them more competitive.
Another big advantage slated for them is cost. With the addition of their college football team in 2025, more players will be traveling within the conference and outside of it. A full football roster mixed with reserves and coaches will take a lot of cash. More proximate opponents allow them to save a little bit more than what they would have doled out in the WAC.
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